Etymologically
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sarcophagus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [sarˈkɔ.pʰa.ɡʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [sarˈkɔː.fa.ɡus][1]

Forms

sarcophagus m (genitive sarcophagī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σαρκοφάγος (sarkophágos, “flesh-eating”),[2][3][1] from σάρξ (sárx, “flesh”) and φαγεῖν (phageîn, “to eat”).[4][5] The name was given to a limestone believed to consume corpses.[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder says a stone found near Assos in the Troad consumes bodies and is called sarcophagus.[2][7] Köbler dates him 23/24–79 AD.[8]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective in lapis sarcophagus it was a caustic stone, probably limestone, used for coffins, and Georges says bodies were consumed in it within forty days.[2][7] An inscription uses it of an eye ointment.[2] As a noun it was any coffin, as in Juvenal, where a coffin will satisfy Alexander, and in the Digest.[2][9] Isidore of Seville repeats that bodies laid in the stone vanish within forty days.[4]

In medieval Latin it was a coffin and a reliquary.[10][8] English sarcophagus is recorded around 1600 for the stone.[5]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the flesh-eating stone.[2][8]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of Alexander's coffin.[2][8]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name.[4][8]
  • c. 1600 – Borrowed into English as sarcophagus.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Flesh-eating, lapis sarcophagus a caustic stone used for coffins.[2][6]

Noun

  1. A coffin, sarcophagus.[2][9]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A reliquary.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill